Search results

On Monday 29th April, I caught a swarm in a bait hive on the side of my house, I'd like to move it into the back garden, which has become my quarantine apiary. Although I've not looked into the bait hive yet, it looks like a large primary swarm, with constant heavy forage traffic at the...

Gwenyn Gruffydd are selling 10-packs of pre-wired, pre-assembled DN4 (£14.99) and SN4 (£14.40) frames - Langstroth also available. https://gwenyngruffydd.co.uk/products/pre-wired-national-brood-frames-10-pack-copy They require their own, slightly smaller than usual, wax foundation (£20.50 for...

The Baitonator™ 3000 strikes again! Just caught my first swarm of the year. Let's hope they decide to stay, as this model doesn't have an entrance wheel on it. So I can't easily keep the queen in. Anyone else had any luck?

I've been wondering how similar our experiences of Beekeeping are. I really enjoy making a lot of my own kit, helping colonies grow, catching swarms and breading new queens. There's a magical experience when returning to a queen mating nuc, discovering she's mated, and imagining the...

The Baitinator™ 3000 is getting attention, today. Anyone else seeing activity at the bait boxes?

This little fella/lady was hanging out next to my strongest colony, yesterday. Any idea which species it is?

Some of my colonies have come out of winter firing on all cylinders. Upon inspection, one had built comb up into the upturned poly feeder. Every cell had an egg in it. I removed it all and plonked a deep of undrawn foundation on top.

I wonder who'll win?

Stumbled across this short video of a BBC news article from 1965. "Miss Olive Brittan, a British woman who looked after the royal Cyrenaican bees of the King of Libya." Amongst other things, she claimed her bees forage at night. Googling, I can't see any mention of Cyrenaican bees. Might it...

I have 2 or 3 colonies covering all frames. All my colonies are on a brood-and-a-half winter config - I want to nadeer the supers. Bees are out ever day. First dandelions are in bloom. Forecast is for 13C daytime temperatures from next weekend. Due to current low daytime temperatures, I...

In the front garden on the crocuses, yesterday. Big and it's the middle of winter, so wondering if she's a queen. Buff-tailed bumblebee?

This being my 1st winter with bees, I've noticed a difference in behaviour between my feral queen colonies and Buckfast F1/F2's. My 3 Buckfast colonies seldom venture out, whereas the 4 feral colonies, particularly the 2 darkest in colour, are out until it dips to 5C, and generate regular big...

Picked up a lot of dead looking honey bees from the floor around the hives. Switched on a reptile heating mat in an old biscuit tin and plonked the bees on it, to see what would happen. Yes, I'm itching to work with bees again. Came back 30 mins later and everyone of them was alive. Some have...

I have 7 colonies across two local apiary sites (garden and 500 mts away abandoned orchard). 1 garden colony has a 2023 may-swarm-caught queen that had a faint yellow mark on her back, I've since remarked her red, as I had no other pens. Looking through my records, I took a total of 4 frames...

I have a colony born of an Autumn queen. She mated well and went great guns in the autumn, laying like a trooper. The colony built up good stores in their single brood chamber 2-in-1 BS Honey bees nuc. Hefted the box today and it weighed no more than the poly hive, the frames and the bees. The...

One of my colonies produces winter bees with a white daub along their furry backs. I've not seen it before, is this a common thing?

Here in Surrey, Christmas dinner may well be barbequed. I expect to be on my deck chair with a pinacolda, watching the bees. No need for hive wraps this year.

I have 3 strong mutt (from swarm) colonies in my back garden. They are bursting with activity, out and about coming back with yellow pollen even at 6C, most days. I opened them up today, they are active and curious. I also have 3 Buckfast F1/F2 colonies, on identical hive set-ups, 400 metres...

It's 10th December. My abandoned fruit orchard apiary colonies are still being pestered by wasps. Today I saw one colony is now surprisingly small. It was attacked by a swarm of wasps in October. Wasps are now passing freely in an out of the hive. Unlike my garden apiary hives, which have...

This year I've spent around £3.2k on beekeeping equipment. Next year I'm hoping for a gross income of <£2k from selling honey. Does anyone have experience of using these numbers for most efficient tax strategy? I'm now on PAYE. For many years, until a few weeks ago, I had my own Ltd company...